Scripture: John 5: 1-18
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Consider:
It’s a miracle! A man had his life returned to him, he stood up and walked after 38 years! And yet…the religious leaders of the day took no time to point out all the fault in the situation: The man had picked up his mat on the sabbath, Jesus had worked this miracle on the sabbath, and Jesus had equated himself to God by calling God father. The tally marks were checked- and to the religious leadership, they all pointed toward condemnation.
Jesus heals; Jesus does the impossible. What was once a symbol of this man’s limitation (his mat that he carries) becomes a testimony of God’s power. Yet instead of rejoicing, the religious leaders focus on the broken rule of the moment.
This passage confronts us with two responses to Jesus: one that clings to tradition and control, and another that rises in faith and celebrates restoration of life. The question we must ask ourselves is this…which response might we have when faced with a similar “miracle” or choice. Do we cling to order, to the rules and regulations of man? Or do we look for, see and celebrate miracles all around us, in all of God’s children?
Jesus shows that God’s work is not bound by schedules or systems. The Sabbath was meant to bring life, not to restrict it. May we not restrict God’s work in the world by missing the miracle being too focused on the “rule breaking” moment.
Respond:
This week, intentionally notice and affirm restoration rather than regulation.Choose one moment where you would normally default to correction, judgment, or “how it should be done,” and instead name and celebrate the life, growth, or healing you see.
That could look like:
* Affirming someone’s progress rather than pointing out what’s still imperfect
* Choosing compassion over policy when someone needs grace
* Letting go of a rule or expectation that keeps you from loving someone fully
Pray:
Lord, open our eyes to see Your miracles instead of our measurements.Free us from clinging to rules when You are offering restoration.Teach us to celebrate life, healing, and freedom wherever You bring them.When Your work disrupts our comfort or challenges our traditions,give us hearts that choose faith over fear and grace over control.May we never miss Your movement by focusing on the rule of the moment.Amen.
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